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Shown from about the knees up, a young woman sits in a chair angled to our right but she turns her face to look at us in this loosely painted, vertical portrait. Her chair has a rounded back and arms made from what looks like bent, woody vines, and the background is a solid field of pale aqua. Her dark hair is parted in the middle and tied at the nape of her neck with a red ribbon. Dark eyebrows curve over brown eyes, and she has a rounded nose, and her petal-pink lips are slightly parted. Her pale peach skin is tinged with green on her face and hands. Her right arm, on our left, rests along the arm of the chair. In her other hand, which rests in her lap, she holds a sprig of blooming oleander, with light pink flowers and green leaves. The bodice of her high-necked dress is striped with brick red and royal blue, and is lined with a row of round gold buttons down the front. The sleeves come down to her forearms and the cuffs and collar at her neck are white. Her full skirt is royal blue with pumpkin-orange dots. The brushwork is loose throughout and individual brushstrokes are visible, especially in the stripes of her bodice and the patchy peach tones that make up her skin.

La Mousmé, 1888

Vincent van Gogh

West Building, Main Floor — Gallery 83

Van Gogh found inspiration for this portrait in the bold complementary colors and contrasting patterns of the Japanese woodblock prints he collected. He fantasized about Japan as a utopia of bright light and color different from the dark, crowded western capitals he lived in. In fact, the title of this portrait comes from a popular French novel about Japan. In the book, the “mousmé” is a young woman described as innocent and pure.

Dive deeper

The intention and determination that inform Van Gogh's art can be obscured by the sensational legends that have arisen about his life. The artist's correspondence, particularly from his brief mature period of 1888 to 1890, contradicts popular lore and attests to the deliberateness, sensitivity, and integrity of his work.

On July 29, 1888, Van Gogh wrote his younger brother Theo, an art dealer in a Parisian gallery, that "if you know what a 'mousmé' is (you will know when you have read Loti's Madame Chrysanthème), I have just painted one. It took me a whole week...but I had to reserve my mental energy to do the mousmé well." Van Gogh’s literary source was a popular novel from the period, whose story of a French man’s affair with a Japanese girl reflected the French fascination with Japanese culture. One of the book’s protagonists, a young, pretty Japanese girl, was called a mousmé in the author’s parlance, which Van Gogh took as his inspiration for this portrait of a young Provençale girl. The carefully modeled face and the vigorous linear patterns of bold complementary colors that describe the girl are stylistic devices that express Van Gogh's sympathetic response to his young sitter. In several descriptions of the painting Van Gogh mentioned the oleander buds in her hand. The significance of the flowers is unclear but may be related to the artist's pantheistic beliefs in natural cycles of birth and renewal.

Van Gogh wrote that La Mousmé was one of a group of portrait studies that were "the only thing in painting that excites me to the depths of my soul, and which makes me feel the infinite more than anything else."

Object Data

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

overall: 73.3 x 60.3 cm (28 7/8 x 23 3/4 in.)

framed: 99 x 86.3 x 10.1 cm (39 x 34 x 4 in.)

Credit Line

Chester Dale Collection

Accession Number

1963.10.151

Artists / Makers

Vincent van Gogh (painter) Dutch, 1853 - 1890

Image Use

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Detail Information

Provenance

Mme Johanna van Gogh-Bonger, the artist's sister-in-law, Amsterdam;[1] sold May 1909 to (J.H. de Bois [C.M. van Gogh, Mme van Gogh-Bonger's uncle by marriage], The Hague); sold 1909 to Carl Sternheim [1878-1942], Munich and later La Hulpe, Belgium;[2] traded 1909 to (Bernheim-Jeune & Cie, Paris).[3] (Jos Hessel, Paris). (Paul Rosenberg and Co., Paris). Georges Bernheim, Paris. Alphonse Kann [1870-1948], Paris, by 1917.[4] J.B. Stang, Oslo;[5] sold 3 January 1928 through (Dr. Alfred Gold [1874-1958], Berlin) to (Alex Reid and Lefèvre, Ltd., Glasgow and London) on joint account with (M. Knoedler & Co., New York); sold 21 May 1929 through (Galerie Étienne Bignou, Paris) to Chester Dale [1883-1962], New York;[6] bequest 1963 to NGA.

[1] The painting is no. 169 in the Andries Bonger list of 1890, described as "Jeune fille à la fleur, toile de 25" ("Catalogue des oeuvres de Vincent van Gogh," manuscript b 3055 V/1962, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam; copy in NGA curatorial files).

[2] The painting sold for 3000 guilders, per Jan Frederik Heijbroek and E.L. Wouthuysen, Kunst, kennis en commercie: de kunsthandelaar J.H. de Bois (1878-1946), Amsterdam, 1993:195, and Christ Stolwijk and Han Veenenbos, The account book of Theo van Gogh and Jo van Gogh-Bonger, Amsterdam and Leiden, 2002: 52 (17/12), 127 (92/10), 149, 172. See also Walter Feilchenfeldt, Vincent van Gogh and Paul Cassirer, Berlin: The Reception of van Gogh in Germany from 1901-1914, Zwolle, 1988: 94. A label from the "Kunsthandel C.M. van Gogh, Keizersgracht 953, Amsterdam" is on the back of the painting.

[3] Thea Sternheim, Tagebücher 1905-1927. Die Jahre mit Carl Sternhaim, Mainz, 1995: 25, mentions Carl trading the portrait to Bernheim-Jeune in exchange for a landscape. Bernheim-Jeune & Cie no. 16771 is per a label on the back of the painting. Hessel, Rosenberg and Georges Bernheim are per Chester Dale papers, in NGA curatorial files.

[4] The painting was lent by Kann to the 1917 exhibition Französische Kunst des XIX. u. XX. Jahrhunderts, Zürchner Kunsthaus, no.108, as Fillette d'Arles. There is also a partial label on the back of the painting that reads "Alph. Kann. van Gogh, Fillette d'Arles."

[5] The Stang collection was visited in January 1929 by Cesar de Hauke and Germain Seligmann, per the Seligmann papers, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington: Box 208. The collection was described, and this painting reproduced, by Paul Jamot in "L'Art français en Norvège," La Renaissance (February 1929). This painting, however, was already sold by Dr. Alfred Gold to Reid & Lefèvre by that time. See Reid & Lefèvre, Paintings Sold, sheet no. 161, #312/28 B1343, which records the date of purchase from Gold as 3 January 1928 (Lefèvre archives, Hyman Kreitman Research Centre, Tate Britain, London, TGA 2002/11, Box 283). Gold was selling pictures from the Stang collection over a number of years; see the Seligmann papers, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington: Box 394. Copies of all the archival documents are in NGA curatorial files.

[6] The invoice dated 5 April 1929 from Bignou to Reid & Lefèvre for the re-framing of the painting suggests it was in Paris by that time (Lefèvre archives, Hyman Kreitman Research Centre, Tate Britain, London, TGA 2002/11, Box 180). On 29 May 1929, Bignou writes that he has shipped the picture to London (Lefèvre archives, Hyman Kreitman Research Centre, Tate Britain, London, TGA 2002/11, Box 218). Copies of the 1929 invoice and letter are in NGA curatorial files.

Associated Names

Bignou, Etienne
Dale, Chester
Galerie Georges Bernheim
Gogh-Bonger, Johanna van, Mme
Gold, Alfred, Dr.
Hessel, Jos
Kann, Alphonse
Knoedler & Company, M.
Reid & Lefèvre, Ltd, Alex
Rosenberg, Paul
Stang, J.B.
Sternheim, Carl
de Bois, J. H.

Exhibition History

1895: Possibly the first van Gogh exhibition, Ambroise Vollard, Paris, June 1895, no catalogue.

1903: Ausstellung der Holländischen Secession, Weisbaden, 1903, no. 18, as Porträt eines jungen Mädchens.

1905: Folkwang Museum, Hagen, 1905, no catalogue.

1905: Schilderijen en Teekeningen door Vincent van Gogh, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, 1905, no. 121, as Jong meisje met bloem.

1905: VII Ausstellung, Paul Cassirer, Berlin, April 1905, no. 10, as Junges Mädchen mit Blume.

1908: Cent tableaux Vincent van Gogh, Bernheim-Jeune, Paris, 1908, no. 52, La Fille à la fleur.

1908: VII Ausstellung, Paul Cassirer, Berlin, 5-22 March 1908, no. 10, as Junges Mädchen mit Blume.

1908: Vincent van Gogh, Kunstverein, Frankfurt, 1908, no. 52, as Junges Mädchen mit Blume.

1917: Französische Kunst des XIX. u. XX. Jahrhunderts, Zürchner Kunsthaus, 1917, no. 108, as Fillette d'Arles.

1929: First Loan Exhibition, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1929, no.75, repro.

1929: Masterpieces by Nineteenth Century French Painters, Alex. Reid & Lefevre, London, June 1929, no. 3A, repro.

1931: Portraits of Women Loan Exhibition: Romanticism to Surrealism, Museum of French Art, New York, 1931, no. 21, as Portrait, Mlle. Gachet.

1932: The Taste of Today in Masterpieces of Painting before 1900, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, as Mlle Gachet, no. cat.

1933: A Century of Progress, The Art Institute of Chicago, 1933, no. 382, repro., as Portrait of Mlle Gachet.

1965: The Chester Dale Bequest, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965, unnumbered checklist.

2010: From Impressionism to Modernism: The Chester Dale Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, January 2010-January 2012, unnumbered catalogue, repro.

Bibliography

1895: Natanson, Thadée. “Jean Carriès – Vincent van Gogh.” La Revue Blanche (June 1895): 572-573.

1905: Vincent van Gogh: 40 Photocollographies d’après ses tableaux et dessins. W. Versluys. Amsterdam, 1905: no. 32 as Portrait de fille (Collection Mme van Gogh-Bonger).

1912: Meier-Graefe, Julius. Vincent van Gogh. Munich, 1912: 49, repro.

1920: Hagan, Oscar (introduction). Van Gogh Mappe. Munich, 1920: no. 14, as Junges Mädchen.

1922: Meier-Graefe, Julius. Vincent van Gogh, a biographical study. 2 vols. Tranlsated by John Holroyd Reece. London, 1922: 2:repro. 94A.

1922: Pfister, Kurt. Vincent van Gogh. Potsdam, 1922: repro. 31.

1928: Faille, J.-B. de la. L'Oeuvre de Vincent Van Gogh, catalogue raisonné. 4 vols. Paris and Brussels, 1928: 1:no. 431; 2:repro.

1929: Gogh, Vincent van. Briefe an Emile Bernard, Paul Gauguin, Paul Signac und Andere. Basel, 1929: 44-45, repro. 48.

1929: Jamot, Paul. "L'Art français en Norvège." La Renaissance 12 (February 1929): 94, repro.

1929: Pfister, Kurt. Vincent van Gogh. Berlin, 1929: pl. 25.

1929: Photogravure Picture Section. The New York TImes (15 September 1929): repro.

1933: Art News 31, no. 34 (May 20, 1933): cover repro., as Portrait of Mlle Gachet.

1933: Meier-Graefe, Julius. Vincent van Gogh: A Biographical Study. New York, 1933: pl. 58.

1933: Rich, Daniel Catton. "The Exhibition of French Art "Art Institute" of Chicago." Formes 33 (1933): 383.

1935: Recueil important des oeuvres de Vincent van Gogh. 2 vols. Tokyo, 1935-1936: 2:pl. 11.

1935: Terrasse, Charles. Van Gogh, peintre. Paris, 1935: 109, repro.

1935: Tietze, Hans. Meisterwerke europäischer Malerei in Amerika. Vienna, 1935: 302, repro. (English ed., Masterpieces of European Painting in America. New York, 1939: 302, repro.).

1936: Bulliet, C. J. The Significant Moderns and Their Pictures. New York, 1936: repro. no. 54.

1936: Sternheim, Carl. Vorkriegseuropa im Gleichnis meines Lebens. Amsterdman, 1936: 137, 165.

1937: Scherjon, W., and Jos. de Gruyter. Vincent van Gogh's Great Period: Arles, St. Rémy and Auvers sur Oise (Complete Catalogue). Amsterdam, 1937: 84, no. 55, repro.

1938: Pemberton, Murdock. "Ambassador to Art." Esquire (February 1938): repro.

1939: Faille, J.-B. de la. Vincent Van Gogh. New York and Paris, 1939: 330, no. 431, repro.

1939: Slocombe, George. Rebels of Art, Manet to Matisse. New York, 1939: pl. 19.

1941: Graber, Hans, ed. Briefe an Emile Bernard, Paul Gauguin, John Russell, Paul Signac und Anderer. Basel, 1941: repro. opposite 52.

1942: French Paintings from the Chester Dale Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 76, repro.

1944: Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. Masterpieces of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1944: 178, color repro.

1944: French Paintings from the Chester Dale Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1944: 76, repro.

1944: Jewell, Edward Alden. French Impressionists and their Contemporaries Represented in American Collections. New York, 1944: repro. 157.

1950: Schapiro, Meyer. Vincent van Gogh. New York, 1950: 59, repro.

1951: Schapiro, Meyer. Vincent Van Gogh. London, 1951: 59, repro.

1953: French Paintings from the Chester Dale Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1953: 86, repro.

1956: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1956: 58, repro.

1957: Shapley, Fern Rusk. Comparisons in Art: A Companion to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. London, 1957 (reprinted 1959): pl. 102.

1959: Evans, Grose. French Painting of the 19th Century in the National Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C., 1959 (Booklet Number Two in Ten Schools of Painting in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.): 36, color repro.

1960: The National Gallery of Art and Its Collections. Foreword by Perry B. Cott and notes by Otto Stelzer. National Gallery of Art, Washington (undated, 1960s): 19, color repro. 17.

1961: d'Angelis, Gaston. Gauguin. Paris, 1961: 46, repro.

1963: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 274, repro.

1965: Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Paintings & Sculpture of the French School in the Chester Dale Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 125, repro.

1965: Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 59.

1966: Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. A Pageant of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. 2 vols. New York, 1966: 2:466, color repro.

1968: Gandolfo, Giampaolo et al. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Great Museums of the World. New York, 1968: 141-142, color repro.

1968: National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 52, repro.

1970: Faille, J.-B. de la. The Works of Vincent van Gogh: Paintings and Drawings. Amsterdam, 1970: no. F431, repro.

1973: Pickvance, Ronald. "The new de la Faille." The Burlington Magazine 115 (March 1973): 179.

1975: European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 156, repro.

1975: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1975: 520, repro. 521.

1976: Dorival, Bernard, "Ukiyo-e and European Painting." In Dialogue in Arts: Japan and the West. Chisaburo F. Yamada, ed. Tokyo and New York, 1976: repro. 45.

1979: Watson, Ross. The National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1979: 120, pl. 106.

1980: Hulsker, Jan. The Complete Van Gogh: Paintings, drawings, sketches. New York, 1980: 344, no. 1519, repro.

1984: Kodera, Tsukasa. "Japan as Primitivistic Utopia: van Gogh's Japonisme Portraits." Simiolus: Netherlands quarterly for the history of art 14, no 3/4 (1984): 189-208, fig. 6.

1984: Pickvance, Ronald. Van Gogh in Arles. Exh. cat. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1984: 156, fig. 41.

1984: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 516, no. 777, color repro.

1985: European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 180, repro.

1988: Feilchenfeldt, Walter. Vincent van Gogh & Paul Cassirer, Berlin. Amsterdam, 1988: 94.

1989: Kodera, Tsukasa. Vincent van Gogh: Christianity versus Nature. Philadelphia, 1989: 64, repro.

1990: Uitert, Evert van, Louis van Tilborgh, and Sjraar van Heugten. Vincent van Gogh, Paintings. Translated by Martin Cleaver et al. Exh. cat. Rijksmuseum Vincent van Gogh, Amsterdam. Milan and Rome, 1990: 20, fig. 6.

1991: Kopper, Philip. America's National Gallery of Art: A Gift to the Nation. New York, 1991: 239.

1992: National Gallery of Art, Washington. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 198, repro.

1992: Sund, Judy. True to Temperament: van Gogh and French Naturalist Literature. Cambridge, 1992: 178, repro.

1993: Heijbroek, Jan Frederik. Kunst, kennis en commercie: de kunsthandelaar J.H. de Bois (1878-1946). Amsterdam, 1993: 195, repro.

1994: Gachet, Paul. Les 70 jours de van Gogh à Auvers : essai d'éphéméride dans le décor de l'époque (20 mai-30 juillet 1890), d'après les lettres, documents, souvenirs et déductions, Auvers-sur-Oise, 1959. Saint-Ouen-l'Aumône, 1994: 159, 318 (where dated around 25 June 1890), color repro XXVII.

1994: Walther, Ingo F., and Rainer Metzger. Vincent van Gogh: Sämtliche Gemälde. 2 vols. Cologne, 1994: 2:389, repro.

1995: Sternheim, Thea. Tagebücher 1905-1927. Die Jahre mit Carl Sternhaim. Mainz, 1995: 25.

1997: Zemel, Carol. Van Gogh's Progress: Utopia, Modernity, and Late-Nineteenth-Century Art. Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London, 1997: 115-117, repro.

1999: Lumpkin, Libby, ed. The Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art: European and American Masters. Rev. ed. Las Vegas, 1999: 104, repro.

1999: Welsh-Ovcharov, Bogomila. Van Gogh: Provence and Auvers. New York, 1999: 110, repro.

2000: Arlésienne : le mythe?. Exh. cat. Museon Arlaten, Arles, 2000: 178, repro. 43.

2000: Dorn, Roland. "The Arles Period: Symbolic Means, Decorative Ends," in Van Gogh Face to Face: The Portraits. Exh. cat. The Detroit Institute of Arts, 2000: repro. 143.

2000: Sund, Judy. "Famine to Feast: Portrait Making at St.-Rémy and Auvers." in Van Gogh Face to Face: The Portraits. Exh. cat. Detroit Institute of Arts, 2000: 183-227.

2001: Childs, Elizabeth. "Seeking The Studio of the South: Vincent van Gogh, Gauguin, and Avant Guard Identity." In Vincent van Gogh and The Painters of The Petit Boulevard. Exh. cat. Saint Louis Art Museum, 2001: 120-134, repro.

2001: Druick, Douglas, and Peter Kort Zegers. Van Gogh and Gauguin: The Studio of the South. Exh. cat. Art Institute of Chicago; Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam. Chicago and New York, 2001: 126-128, repro.

2001: Jirat-Wasiutyriski, Vojtech. "Van Gogh in the South." In Antimodernism and Artistic Experience. Lynda Jessup, ed. Toronto, 2001: 185, repro.

2002: Stolwijk, Chris, and Han Veenenbos. The account book of Theo van Gogh and Jo van Gogh-Bonger. Amsterdam and Leiden, 2002: 52 (17/12), 127 (92/10), 149, 172 no. F 431 JH 1519.

2004: Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 368-369, no. 303, color repro.

2005: Ives, Colta, et al. Vincent van Gogh: The Drawings. Exh. cat. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. New Haven, 2005: 232, fig. 157.

2007: Thomson, Belinda. Van Gogh Paintings: The Masterpieces. London, 2007: 108, repro.

2009: Veen, Wouter van der. Van Gogh: A Literary Mind. Literature in the Correspondence of Vincent van Gogh. Zwolle and Amsterdam, 2009: 204, repro. 205.